When bees draw comb in tree hollows they fill all available areas until the available space has been utilized. These combs are curved and interlocked with uniformly spaced passageways throughout. The passageways have a uniform spacing referred to as “bee-space”. The bee-space permits the three castes of bees (workers, drones, queens) to freely pass throughout all parts of the hive.
Although there are many variations on manufactured beehives the most common type of hive used for bee culture has movable frames. Beekeepers take measures to encourage the production of straight comb with a uniform width. Frequently the frames are provided with a foundation which acts as a template for the cell pattern and construction of straight comb. Even with foundation the comb frequently has sections where the width varies with over-built or under-built sections of comb.
Whenever a frame of honeycomb is over-built, it protrudes or bulges into the adjoining frame. The adjacent frame is therefore under-built, thin, and convex resulting in difficulty when disassembling or inspecting the hive. Forced removal of an interlocked section damages the comb and frequently kills quantities of bees. Beekeepers prevent this by monitoring and trimming comb to make it uniform and prevent it from becoming interlocked.
Trimming involves extra handling of frames and can interfere or slow down the inspection or honey harvest. Under-built sections are unable to be effectively uncapped. The under-built area of wax needs to be filled in order to have a uniform comb. The bees may repeatedly over-build the trimmed comb instead of completing the under-built comb. Repeated trimming may be needed by the beekeeper until the comb irregularities have been reduced, and regular shaped comb completely fills the frame.
Constructing comb is an energy intensive activity. Bees expend substantial amounts of carbohydrate in the form of nectar or supplied sugar water to produce the wax. It has been reported that the production of one pound of wax reduces honey production by eight pounds; therefore, when the beekeeper removes and discards misshapen comb there is a reduction in the amount of honey available for storage.
Some beekeepers allow comb construction without using foundation as a template. These beekeepers typically use a starter strip at the top-bar of the frame to direct comb building. The bees join together in an interlocking group that hangs from the starter strip down in a festoon. One problem is that bees frequently deviate from the starter strip when constructing foundationless comb. This results in severely crooked, or cross-comb positioned semi-perpendicular to the direction desired by the beekeeper. The misshapen comb locks the frames together so that removing frames can substantially damage the comb and kill many bees. Another obstacle when keeping bees is when they swarm.
In order to increase honey production beehives should have an ample number of bees; however, if the brood area of a hive becomes overcrowded it becomes more likely that the bees will swarm. This means there needs to be a balance between the number of bees in the hive and the available space. A swarming hive will have approximately half the bees leave with the existing queen bee to start a new colony. When managed hives swarm there is a reduction in the strength of the hive and the amount of honey available for harvest. Recapturing the swarm involves extra work. If the swarm can't be recaptured, it may invade buildings or other unwanted areas causing problems and the new colony is lost.